“I’m not making any rash decisions right now,” Kevin said quietly. “Just talking with an intellectual equal.”

“The last time you did that, the poor girl was sent to Puludun.”

“Then let’s be sure that doesn’t happen this time,” Kevin said, glaring fiercely. He paused. “Are we even in Orono at the moment, John?”

“No, Your Highness.” John grumbled. “If you had paid any attention to your briefings, you would know exactly where we are.”

“What briefings?”

“The one you slept through before riding off into the sky like a Quixotic hero.”

Kevin turned away again. “I miss when you were honest with me.”

“When did I deviate from that?”

“You’re playing games, John. Briefings before riding off into the sky? This whole battle games business? You’ve changed. And you don’t want me in the loop.”

“You rely far too much on your subordinates, sir.”

“I rely more on my friends.”

“Which is a folly for a future king.” John stood straighter, one hand on the pommel of his sword.

“You’re wrong,” Kevin said. “Kings need alliances. They need the accordance of their lords and of their neighbours. They need guards who care about them and not just the salaries they pay, people who know their ruler loves them so they can love him in their turn. If I don’t rely on friendship, John, I cripple myself.”

“By becoming dependent on your ‘friends’ Your Highness forgets his duty to the crown. By all means, be friendly with your subjects, but keep in mind, that is all they are or should ever be.” John’s eyes narrowed. “How many more people must be wounded by your refusal to grow up?”

Kevin faced John, his own eyes narrowed in kind. “You are a very dear… friend to me, John, but even you don’t have the right to pass judgement in this way. I will build my throne by the dictates of my conscience, not yours or Mother’s.”

“That wasn’t a request, soldier.” John swung with his staff, forcing Kevin to shift quickly into a defensive stance.

Kevin blocked the blow, but only barely. He grimaced. “What are you playing at, John?”

“I never play, Your Highness.” John pressed forward, and Kevin backed up in response, the two slowly finding their footing in the designated practice area. “You know I always act in your best interests.”

“Do I? You’ve changed, John. This isn’t how we used to operate together. That can’t be only about Mother’s orders.”

“I’ve always operated autonomously, and you know that.” John struck forward again, the edge of his stave slipping inside the Prince’s defense.

“That’s absurd.” Kevin winced, dodging enough that the blow only glanced against his shins rather than totally knocking him off balance. “We’ve always worked together. Now we’re each standing alone.”

“Aye, sire.” John twisted, sweeping the stave towards Kevin’s ankles.

Kevin blocked the strike, watching John expectantly. When the man said nothing further, he let out a sound of frustration and went on the attack for the first time. “Then what’s the point of this charade, John?”

“I serve the house Aqaba.”

“You’re shutting me out.”

“I protect the kingdom of Orono.”

“So you keep saying.”

The ground rumbled, and Kevin’s eyes widened, his face going white as memories flooded back into his mind. “Anjali,” he gasped, and turned away from John to find her.

John’s arm snaked out, the stave smacking the Prince’s shoulder soundly. “We aren’t finished, Your Highness. Never turn your back on an opponent, even if they are your friend.”

Kevin stumbled, turning back. One hand rubbed his aching shoulder, while the other gripped his weapon warily. “What the hell are you doing, John? I need to go to my wife. You aren’t my enemy here.”

“Am I?”

He glared. “Damn all, John. You’re still…” Kevin trailed off, his weary mind still racing. “You’re here. You can join our fight. Working with us against this Castle doesn’t contravene Mother’s orders to you.”

Mirae hurried through the hallways, shifting the crossbow to her other arm as she left the latest row of cells behind her. Its weight felt odd, though it had only been weeks since--no, it must have been months at this point. Part of her still thought she had only just arrived; she shook her head, trying to displace the conflicting thoughts.

---

Marcus groaned as he was thrown against the wall, by a training dummy. Great, memories come back, sort of. And then I get attacked by a scarecrow’s unlucky cousin. The really galling part was that the enemy was winning. Not only was the dummy a competent fighter but it had regenerated from all the blows Marcus had landed on it. “She better remember by the time I find her,” the soldier muttered under his breath.

He had time to register the sound of the nearest door opening before something cracked over his head. A flicker of flame appeared on the side of the dummy’s head.

Marcus rolled over to see Mirae in the doorway. “Not enough.” He gasped, “Blast it!”

“If you’re sure,” she said, her words trailing into another sharp crack. A pair of larger flames sprang up, joining the first in devouring the straw covering every joint and limb. A third flash blackened the rest of its head.

Marcus sighed heavily. “When I say ‘Blast it’ I mean let loo- Thrice damn forget it, I have enough time to focus now.” The warrior drew a line in the dust. “Fissure.” He snarled, as the earth parted below the dummy dropping it into a hole.

“Collapse.” He commanded, drawing a quick ‘X’ over the previous line. The earth quickly fell over and buried the opponent. The big man promptly collapsed back onto the floor, sweating and panting heavily. “Hey, Mir.”

“Hey,” she replied, resting her back against the wall. “Looks like you’ve kept yourself busy.” Mirae swept her eyes over the lump of dirt that marked where the strawman had been. “You all right?”

“My pride has been bruised.” He replied, trying to shrug. “Also I probably used a bit too much magic there. Pretty damn tired now. Did I have time to mention the magic to you before now?”

“Not a word.” Mirae grinned. “Is that why I haven’t seen you since you went to set up that base?”

“Partially” He replied, reaching up a and and attempting to pull the small mage down alongside him. “Though as I recall it partially had to do with someone going off on her own despite not having a damned clue how to escape from her pursuers!”

“What?” She dropped down beside him, managing to look affronted as she did. “It can’t have been more than a few hours. You can’t use that as an excuse.”

“Excuse, whatever, I would have gotten to it. I swear I’m going to impart some tactical sense into you if it’s the last thing I do you stupid,” He kissed her. “short-statured,” Another kiss. “short-sighted,” Kiss. “Dammit I was worried!”

“Hey! You’re a hand taller than you’ve any right to be. Makes you think everything else is small instead.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I knew you’d be okay,” she murmured. “Trust me that I will be too?”

“Liar, you didn’t remember I’d be fine until no more than half an hour ago I’d wager.” He muttered back. “I suppose I can trust you to look after yourself.”

“But for that half-hour I wasn’t worried.” She smiled into him. “For someone who wasn’t a mage a few days ago, you seem to be handling yourself all right.”

“Yeah well, you didn’t see the first part of that fight. Wasn’t nearly as pretty. Thing heals, fast.”

“It’s made of straw. At least say you were stabbing it.”

“No I knocked a limb straight off, and it’s head at one point. Thing was surprisingly persistent.”

“Oh. I thought taking off heads was a sure thing.”

“Yeah, so did I. Apparently not.”

“I take it none of its friends are here to pick up where it left off?” Mirae eyed the far end of the small arena.

Marcus blinked slowly. “Balls. I never even saw any of it’s friends. You think maybe they’re busy chasing everyone else who's up here?”

“Let’s hope so. Or we’ll have to start setting everything on fire just to be sure.”

“We weren’t doing that already? Why weren’t we doing that already? It’s not the worst strategy we could adopt for this place.”

“Well, you have to do it from the outside. Running through fire’s no fun.” She stretched, pushing herself back to her feet, before holding out a hand to him.

Marcus gave her a flat look. “Mir, I love you and all but there’s no way you can possibly pull me to my feet,” he teased.

“Oh, quiet,” she said, grabbing his hand. She tugged on it. And then again. “Curse and damn it, I swear you’ve gotten heavier.”

“Are you saying I’ve gotten fat?” He replied, deadpan.

“Fat, started using boulders as a weapon, not really sure.”

“Boulders are hard.” Marcus replied slowly getting to his feet, his body still fatigued from the magic. “A lot of earth magic is very difficult to use. Lori said something about ‘More mass requiring more energy’ or something. Dunno, not exactly like I’ve used other magic so I don’t have anyway to compare the two.”

“You got a stubborn magic, then. You should have been a lightning mage.” She knocked against his side. “The only hard bit about that is stopping.”

“That and your aura leaves little magic charges on everything you touch. I haven’t seen you leave anything big enough to shock but I can still see it.” The big man wrapped his arm around her shoulder and leaned. “I’m gonna use you as a walking stick for a bit, I’m still kind of tired after that.”

She rested her hand on his shoulder as a reply, craning her head around almost exactly the same way as before as she looked for her aura. “Oh, really? What do you look like?”

“I...What?”

“Your… aura? What’s yours like?”

“Greenish. And it has little shifting stuff around the edges, like sand or clumps of dirt. I think that second part is something all earth mages have.”

Mirae stopped him at the doorway, glancing around. “What about the scarecrow? Did it have one?” She sounded more like they were in a tavern, telling each other what they had been up to.

“Truth be told I was a bit busy getting kicked around to look, but since it was animated it probably was powered by some magic. But that’s not what’s worrying me.”

“Hm?” She looked up at him.

“Well we haven’t run into any of his buddies and there are other people trapped up here besides us. I’ll give you three guesses where the other training dummies are.”

Mirae took a deep breath and let it out in a long hiss. “You have got to be joking,” she muttered before laughing quietly. “All right.”

“You know. I’m sure you realize I’m not psychic but it times when you say things like that, that I’m sure you’ve forgotten,” Marcus said with a slightly irritated tone.

“All right, let’s go save the people you’re worried about?” She watched him, half a smile on her face.

Marcus let out a weak laugh. “I’m not even sure who's trapped on this floor and you’re already on board to go save them? You feelin’ sick?”

The smile flashed into a scowl as quickly as it had appeared. “I’d also be fine with getting out of here.”

“I’ll tell you what.” Marcus rooted around in his pocket and pulled out a coin. “Heads, we rescue; Tails, we leave. Sound fair?”

“Fair enough.”

The big man flipped and the coin landed on tails. “Looks like you get your wish, Mir.”

“Good.” Mirae ducked out from under him long enough to scoop up the coin. “Let’s head back outside.”

“Yeah well hurry up I need my crutch back.” He teased, leaning over to plant a quick kiss against her cheek.

“For that, we’re running.” She took up his shoulder again. “Oh! I saw Darren earlier.”

“Up here?”

“Yeah. We got our memories back together.”

“Yeah, I ran into Likovya, earlier. Neither of had our memories. She’s kind of a twit without them.”

“Or even with them,” Mirae said under her breath. “So you have run into people up here.”

“Yes. You and her. That’s it.”

“All right, let’s go. And try not to open any doors. There’re some that are a bit more… explosive than usual.”

“Explosive? What did you do, Mir?”

“Hey.” She glared at him. “The second one wasn’t my fault.”

“But the first one was.” He shot back.

“As far as I know, it was booby-trapped. Turning right up here.”

“Sure, sure. I’ve blown stuff up and then tried to hand out that excuse before, Mir. Hat ta’ break it to ya love but no one ever buys it.”

She laughed. “Maybe because you have a few less potions on you after?”

“It was probably my pouch of black powder going missing round that same time actually. No one really felt like investigating.” Marcus replied with a mischievous grin.

“I wish I’d seen that one. Here, stand on your own for a second. I need to open this door.”

“Wait, hold on then.” Marcus moved off of her and then hobbled further back down the hall as quick as he could. “Ready when you are.” He called out in a mocking voice.

She wrinkled her nose at him. Then put her hand on the doorknob and twisted, pushing it open. “Want to come back now?”

Marcus returned and gave her a kiss on the cheek as he put an arm over her shoulders. “Never doubted you for a moment.” He felt a small spark on the back of his hand. “Will you calm the hell down? Thrice-damn it woman, I had to work for that joke.”

Mirae stifled a snort. “Glad you’re back,” she said, hugging him with one arm.

Marcus stopped long enough to give her a hard kiss. “I missed you too.”

She leaned into him for a minute, then broke away, smiling. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Right.” Marcus sent a glance back over his shoulder. Any of the rest of you who were stuck here, you better make it back in one piece too.